1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to a hybrid vehicle and, more particularly, to a hybrid marine vessel that selectively combines the function of cooling the cabin temperature with the function of removing heat from a battery storage compartment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many different systems are known, to those skilled in the art of marine vessels, for the purpose of removing heat from heat emitting components and transferring that heat to other sections of the system where the heat can be removed by a heat exchanger or, alternatively, can be used for the purpose of increasing the temperature of other portions of the marine vessel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,325, which issued to Sakurada on Feb. 6, 1990, describes an automobile air conditioner with separate flow adjustment for central and side vents. The system has a central air outlet and a pair of left and right air outlets arranged at left and right sides of the central air outlet, which are provided at least one of front and rear portions of the vehicle compartment. A center vent passage extends from a first diverging point and leads to the central air outlet. A side vent passage extends from the first diverging point in a manner separated from the center vent passage and leads to the left and right air outlets. The side vent passage has a pair of left hand and right hand vent passages extending from a second diverging point located at a different position from the first diverging point and leading to the left and right outlets, respectively. A flow rate ratio-adjusting door is arranged at the second diverging point for adjusting the ratio between the flow rates of air delivered into the left hand and right hand vent passages.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,809, which issued to Takenaka et al. on Feb. 13, 1990, describes an automotive air conditioner system with automatic adjustment of discharge air temperature. The system controls the temperature of air to be discharged into a cabin of a vehicle in an automatically air conditioner system of an automotive vehicle. The air conditioner system is provided with a cooling unit and a heating unit for cooling and heating conditioning air in the air conditioner system for delivery to the cabin of the vehicle. The air conditioner system includes a mechanism for mixing the cooling air and the heating air in a stepwise manner so as to generate a controlled temperature of conditioning air to be discharged into the vehicle cabin with a moderate adjustment in transition so as to maintain a desired vehicle cabin temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,566, which issued to Hildebrand on Aug. 27, 1991, describes a heating or air conditioning system for a motor vehicle. Improved air conditioning of the rear seat area of a motor vehicle is achieved substantially independently from the front seat area in a heating or air conditioning system having means for controlling the temperature of a supply air via a front seat control unit by employing a front air flap with a cool air passage at the inlet of a heat exchanger. A front seat air mix chamber is connected with a rear seat air mix chamber having a rear seat air duct, a rear seat foot duct, and a rear seat air-mix flap with a cool air passage therethrough to control the proportion of cool and warm air entering the ducts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,061,630, which issued to Knopf et al. on Oct. 29, 1991, describes a laboratory apparatus for optional temperature controlled heating and cooling. It comprises a block of one or more Peltier elements which, with one of their thermal poles, are in thermal contact with an essentially rectangular block of heat conducting metal, and with the other pole are in thermal contact with a heat exchanger, this latter being thermally insulated from the metal block. One of the outer surfaces of the rectangular metal serves as a working outer surface for heating and cooling the samples.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,883, which issued to Kinmartin et al. on Apr. 7, 1992, describes a method of assembly of single and multi-zone vehicle heating and air conditioning systems. A vehicle heating and cooling system has a distribution separated into two channels by a baffle for supplying separate air streams to the passenger and driver sides of the vehicle compartment. Two temperature control doors associated with the heater core and evaporator separately admit an air mix to the two channels for independent control of driver and passenger side temperatures.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,371, which issued to Rajasubramanian et al. on Apr. 6, 1999, describes a hybrid air conditioning system and a method therefore.
The system is intended to condition the air within an enclosure which houses heat producing equipment. It includes a passive heat removal system, for precooling the air, and a thermal electric temperature control system in conjunction with the passive heat removal system to achieve additional cooling, temperature control and heating.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,593, which issued to Halligan on Dec. 21, 1999, describes an automotive vehicle climate control system. The system is capable of simultaneously providing fully heated air exiting one air outlet while also providing fully cooled exiting from a second air outlet. Another aspect of the system provides simultaneous and independently controlled air volumes exiting from two different air outlets while receiving air through one or more common air inlets.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,877, which issued to Peiffer et al. on Mar. 21, 2000, describes a modular low pressure delivery vehicle air conditioning system. The system comprises a self-contained refrigeration power cell, a heat exchanger remotely located from the refrigeration power cell, and a low pressure refrigerant communication circuit operably coupling the refrigeration power cell to the heat exchanger. The refrigeration power cell comprises a compressor, a condenser, an expansion device, and an evaporator which are serially coupled to form a high pressure closed refrigeration circuit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,749, which issued to Kawai et al. on Oct. 31, 2000, describes an automotive air conditioner with vent and air mixing door interlocking mechanism. A motor vehicle air conditioner having a structure that reduces production costs is described. Main and sub air-mixing doors and an inner-air FOOT door are mechanically interlocked with a single air mixing door actuator. The shape of an engagement hole of a main link plate of a door interlock device is formed to correspond to an operation pattern to rotate the main and sub air-mixing doors from the maximum cool and maximum hot settings.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,889,512, which issued to Ebara et al. on May 10, 2005, describes an on-vehicle air conditioner. It allows the system to perform cooling, heating, dehumidification or other processes on vehicles such as hybrid cars taking electricity and gasoline as energy sources.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,025,159, which issued to Smith et al. on Apr. 11, 2006, describes a cooling system for a vehicle battery. The vehicle does not use air from the vehicle passenger compartment, but rather, taken in ambient air from outside the vehicle. When the temperature of the ambient air outside the vehicle is low enough, the air is moved through a duct system by a pair of fans and blown across a battery assembly. When the temperature of the ambient air outside the vehicle is too warm to cool the battery directly, it is first passed through an evaporator coil where it exchanges heat with a refrigerant, prior to being blown across the battery assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,032,393, which issued to Tamai et al. on Apr. 25, 2006, describes a climate cooling control system and method for hybrid vehicles. The methods are intended for controlling the climate cooling in the passenger cabin of a hybrid motor vehicle. The apparatus includes an internal combustion engine capable of being started and temporarily stopped, an air conditioning compressor and a dedicated electric compressor motor coupled to drive the air conditioning compressor. Moreover, the sensors are coupled to monitor selected parameters associated with the motor vehicle. An electronic controller is coupled to the internal combustion engine, the compressor motor and the sensors.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,380,586, which issued to Gawthrop on Jun. 3, 2008, describes a climate control system for hybrid vehicles using thermoelectric devices. The system provides a system for controlling the climate of a hybrid is vehicle. The system includes a thermoelectric module, a heat exchanger, a pump, and a valve. The thermoelectric module includes thermoelectric elements powered by electric energy. The thermoelectric elements emit or absorb heat energy based on the polarity of the electrical energy provided. A tube containing coolant runs proximate the thermoelectric elements. To aid in the transfer of heat energy, a blower is provided to generate an air flow across the thermoelectric elements and the tube. The coolant is provided from the thermoelectric module to a heat exchanger that heats or cools the air flow provided to the cabin of the vehicle. The pump and valve are in fluid communication with the heat exchanger and thermoelectric module. The pump pressurizes the coolant flow through the tube and coolant lines. In a cooling mode, the valve is configured to selectively bypass the engine coolant system of the vehicle.
The patents described above are hereby expressly incorporated by reference in the description of the present invention.
In a hybrid marine vessel, several tasks must be performed in conjunction with the heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system. In addition, marine vessels have significantly limited space in which to perform these functions which include the removal of heat from the battery storage system and the maintaining of a desirable temperature in the cabin and other living spaces of the vessel. In addition to these limitations, it is expected that a marine vessel will experience temperature variations that will require cooling under some conditions and heating under other conditions. It would therefore be significantly beneficial if a system could be provided that uses the existing components of the HVAC system and the battery charging and discharging system of the marine vessel for the purpose of controlling the temperatures throughout the vessel. It would be particularly advantageous if the need for additional components could be avoided while accomplishing these other tasks.